Speculative Fiction—an all-encompassing genre created to describe stories of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and other stories that have an element of “What if...” in them. A story in speculative fiction is one that adds an element of the unreal, or asks, what would become of our society if history took a different direction at some important event? Fiction with a little something extra thrown in.—William D. Richards

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Thursday, December 7, 2017

A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs by Cora Buhlert

Release date: November 23, 2017

Subgenre: Space opera, Alien invasion

About A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs:

Humanity thought they were alone in the universe. They were wrong.

When
aliens attack Hyams II, a small mining colony on the galactic rim, all
that stands between the attackers and the terrified civilian population
are a handful of underpaid and underequipped security guards.

However,
two of those guards, Cally and Matt, use all their skills and their
knowledge of the colony's layout to fight back and hold the invaders at
bay. And in the process, they also manage to uncover the biggest secret
of all: Why are the aliens attacking human outposts at all?

This is a short science fiction story of 6500 words or approximately 25 print pages.

Excerpt:

Space-suited creatures stream through the airlock. At least, I think
they’re wearing space suits, since those sure as hell don’t look like
any space suits I’ve ever seen. There are too many arms, too many legs,
too many limbs. Even looking at them hurts and makes me doubt my sanity.
More and more pour into the station, until the entire corridor is
just a mess of arms and legs and limbs. Closer and closer they come,
relentless, unstoppable.
My finger tightens on the trigger of my plasma rifle, itching to
shoot, itching to blow off some of those arms and legs and limbs, blow
them to smithereens.
“Hold your fire,” the voice of Security Chief Burnett echoes in my ear, “Hold until they’re at the bulkhead.”
Intellectually, I know he’s right. After all, we’ve only got one shot
at this, just one chance. But though my mind knows he’s right, that
doesn’t mean that my heart does.
After all, I’ve seen what they can do. I’ve seen the aftermath, the
bloodstained floors and mangled human bodies, the charred remnants of
outposts where not a single soul was left alive.
At first, we didn’t even know what it was. All we knew was that along
the rim, outposts and space stations suddenly went dark. And once the
galactic government got around to sending someone to investigate, all
they found were wrecked stations and decomposing bodies without a single
clue as to what had happened.
Bodies and wrecked outposts piled up, as the attacks increased. And
gradually, we found clues. SOS calls, breaking off in mid transmission.
Marks and scratches on walls and bulkheads that nothing human could have
made. Traces of organic substances that matched absolutely nothing in
the known universe. And finally, grainy security cam footage of
multi-limbed horrors the likes of which no human eye had ever seen.
We’d thought that we were alone in the cosmos, that the universe was ours for the taking. We were wrong.
But though we knew what we were up against, we still had no real way
of stopping them. And so outposts and stations continued to go dark,
their crews torn to pieces. Central Government increased patrols along
the rim and sent marines to guard and defend endangered stations, but it
was to no avail. The enemy continued to strike, evading the patrols and
killing the marines along with everybody else.
The enemy. That’s what we call them, cause we don’t know what their
proper name is or if they even have one. We don’t know what they want,
why they attack us and why now, we don’t even know what they look like.
Until now…
Cause I’m seeing them, seeing them with my own two eyes, these
creatures with too many arms and legs and limbs. I see them advancing
towards us, scurrying like oversized spiders, scuttling like lobsters or
starfish, different, terrifying, other.
Very likely, it’s the last thing I’ll ever see.
Cause unlike the other colonies and stations that were hit, we don’t
have a large crew. Hyams II just a small outpost, a handful of miners
extracting tantalum ore from an asteroid plus support personnel and
families. We don’t have marines to protect us, just a bunch of underpaid
and underequipped security guards. We’re outnumbered and outgunned and
we know it.
And yet we fight, make a stand. Because we have to. Because we’re
humans and we don’t just lay down and die. We fight and even if we go
down, we’ll make sure those monsters regret ever having come here.
The first of the creatures, the vanguard, are almost at the bulkhead
now. It’s the perfect spot for an ambush, a natural bottleneck. Just a
few more feet and then…
“Fire. Fire at will,” Chief Burnett yells, his voice echoing in my head.
I press the trigger. I see the flash of fifteen plasma rifles
discharging all at once, hear the roar. I see a blast hit its mark, see
one of those too many limbs blown off, see green alien blood — of
course, it’s green — splatter onto the bulkhead.

About Cora Buhlert:

Cora Buhlert was
born and bred in North Germany, where she still lives today – after time
spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. Cora holds an MA
degree in English from the University of Bremen and is currently
working towards her PhD.

Cora has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published
stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines. She is
the author of the Silencer series of pulp style thrillers, the Shattered
Empire space opera series, the In Love and War science fiction romance series, the Helen Shepherd Mysteries and plenty of
standalone stories in multiple genres. When Cora is not writing, she
works as a translator and teacher.

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